Various medical procedures utilize reagents or mixtures of reagents for treatment or diagnosis of patient conditions. For example, certain imaging modalities use radiopharmaceuticals to generate medical images of a patient. Some such imaging modalities include positron emission tomography (PET) or single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). PET and SPECT are used in conjunction with a radiopharmaceutical or a radioactive tracer that is administered to (e.g., injected into) the patient, which results in the emission of gamma rays from locations within the patient's body. The emitted gamma rays are then detected by the PET or SPECT detector and an image is created based on characteristics of the detected gamma ray emissions. Additionally, certain radiopharmaceuticals may be used to treat various patient conditions. Examples of radiopharmaceuticals include FDG (2-[18F]-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose), other 18F based fluorinated tracers, 13N ammonia, 11C based tracers, 15O gas, and 15O water, and others.
Radiopharmaceuticals have short half lives typically ranging from minutes to hours, and thus, the injection and imaging generally takes place within a short time after production of the radiopharmaceutical. Accordingly, to prevent undue decay of such radiopharmaceuticals prior to use, the radiopharmaceuticals are often synthesized onsite at or near medical facilities where the PET or SPECT imaging system is located. However, the systems used to generate such radiopharmaceuticals often are only capable of generating large batches, which is not only time-consuming and expensive, but often generates excess radiopharmaceutical product that cannot be used by the medical facility and is wasted. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system that enables long-term storage of radiopharmaceutical reagents and a synthesis technique that yields small batches of radiopharmaceuticals.